LOCALS at Narooma have been out and about witnessing the latest king tide and participating in the Witness King Tides Project.

But compared to
the spring tides of October 1 and an earlier storm surge in June of this year,
this latest 2-metre king tides was reported as a “bit of a fizzer”, in Narooma
at least.

Local tide
watcher Greg Watts said it was more like a big high tide.

There was however
some global warming activist, probably inspired by the project, going around
the Wagonga Inlet foreshore putting stickers at the projected 2050 tide level.

And Greg snapped
away featuring the stickers in his high tide photos that were being forwarded
to the Green Cross organisation as part of the Witness King Tide Project.

The highest he
has ever seen the tide at Narooma occurred in winter this year when a huge
storm surge late at night on June 5 swamped Wagonga Inlet at Narooma.

“What an amazing
night!” Greg reported at the time.

“The new sea wall
at the Narooma Pool was overtopped.

Waves were
breaking over Bluewater Drive at the southern end of the town wharf, Apex Park
jetty was under, all the stormwater drains along Riverside Dr backed up (lucky
we didn't get the 80mm of rain we had the day before!) and I reckon a lot of
the boatsheds and Fisheries office will have water damage through the floors.

RMS bridge
compound also had waves running through it.

Waves coming up
to the bottom of the steps at Carters and Dalmeny beaches and hind-dunes at
Kianga. Would have needed a boat to get out to the NPWS Shearwater mooring
pontoon.”

Then on October 1
this year, Greg was also out and about recording very high spring tides that
appeared larger than this latest king tide.

“Are the tides
getting bigger?” Greg reported at the time.

“Seems that some
of the sea walls and infrastructure are being further breached with every king
tide.”

What is the
Witness King Tides Project?

Earlier this
year, the Green Cross organisation ran a pilot project across the Queensland
coast and due to its success the organisation is now rolling Witness King Tides
out nationally.

Green Cross needed
coastal communities around Australia to take a photo or two as part of the Witness
King Tides project.

Photos of Friday’s
king tide will build a picture of the threat posed by sea level rise for our
communities and help track the future impact of climate change.

Sea level rise
will impact our coastal communities in the coming years and it is important
that Australians are informed and engaged on this issue.

Witness King
Tides is a fun community photography project that helps us visualise the
potential future impacts of sea level rise and current risks today.

Having this
visual collection of images could help us be better prepared for a future where
sea levels are higher than they are today. If we can envisage future change, we
can plan and prepare for it now.